It’s Trump: taut race ends with former president returning to White House

One of the most consequential, expensive and divisive US presidential elections in history finally wrapped up on Wednesday when former president Donald Trump was declared the winner.

Associated Press announced at 6.30pm Hong Kong time that Trump won the key state of Wisconsin, bringing him to a total of 277 electoral votes – more than the 270 required to win the White House. But possibilities of lawsuits and recounts cannot be ruled out.

While the AP announcement is unofficial, it is regarded as definitive. The wire service has compiled vote totals across the US in thousands of national, state and local races for more than 170 years, filling what would otherwise be an information gap of a month or more between Election Day and the states’ official certification of results.

While the full results for 34 US Senate races and all 435 House of Representatives seats are still unclear, the Republicans are set to control the Senate, with 51 seats secured as of the latest vote counts.

Also unclear is the election’s impact on global affairs.

Trump has pledged to end the Ukraine war quickly, boasting that he would accomplish that even before taking office in January. He has also vowed to force allies to pay more for their collective defence and, as leader of his “America first” movement, he has promised to erect high trade and migration barriers for the benefit of US citizens.